


Checkmate

by Singofsolace



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Romance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26213500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Singofsolace/pseuds/Singofsolace
Summary: Hecate and Pippa have a lovely evening of chess and sherry planned. With the help of Morgana, confessions are made and kisses exchanged.
Relationships: Hardbroom/Pentangle (Worst Witch), Hecate Hardbroom/Pippa Pentangle
Comments: 12
Kudos: 66





	Checkmate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rm-theevilqueen (HicsqueakAndUnicorns)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HicsqueakAndUnicorns/gifts).



It was a quiet winter evening, just like any other. There was a fire in the hearth, tea on the table, and the old gramophone in the corner filled the room with Madame Esper Vespertilio’s enchanting voice. Pippa sat across from Hecate in a comfortable armchair, pondering the chessboard set up between them.

They had a standing date every Thursday night since they’d… reconciled. Hecate didn’t know if it should really be called a reconciliation, because in her heart, she’d never blamed Pippa for the bad blood between them; it was Hecate who withdrew, after all. Hecate who stopped talking to her. Hecate who threw months of practice out the window by failing to show up to the double’s broomstick waterskiing display.

(Never mind the fact that Hecate had asked Alma Cackle if she could go to the lake with the rest of the girls—had begged, had pleaded—and been met with a resounding “no.”)

Regardless, it was all in the past. Their relationship had been on the mend for well over a year or two, and Hecate couldn’t remember a time in her life when she’d been happier. Hecate especially looked forward to their weekly meetings; their evenings were defined by interesting conversation, a taxing game of chess, and, possibly, just _one_ glass of sherry, if Hecate was in the proper mood.

Tonight, she was certainly in the mood, as the dancing light from the fire illuminated Pippa’s soft smile and painted lips just so. It was driving her to distraction. Hecate’s ability to play a proper game of chess decreased the longer Pippa dawdled between moves, stroking Hecate’s sleek black familiar, Morgana, who was curled up in her lap. Pippa’s face was scrunched up, as if to make a show of “thinking.”

The sight was entirely too… enticing.

Hecate’s body flooded with heat. She shouldn’t be ogling her best and oldest friend. It wasn’t… wasn’t… proper. She needed something to do with her hands, lest she reach out to touch Pippa in a moment of weakness.

“Would you like a sherry?” Hecate blurted out, just as Pippa finally picked up her white knight to make a move. Hecate was already on her feet, headed towards the small, ornate table which held a glass decanter of sherry.

Blinking in surprise at the unexpected question, Pippa’s expression morphed from one of confusion to delight. “I’d love one—”

Pippa’s sentence was interrupted by Hecate setting down two glasses next to the decanter with a bit too much force, causing the distinct _clank_ of too-roughly-handled glass. The sudden sound startled Morgana, who leapt from Pippa’s lap onto the chess board, sending all the pieces flying in every direction.

“Morgana, no!” cried Hecate, abandoning the sherry, but the damage was already done; there would be no recovering their progress.

Pippa’s laugh peeled like a bell as Morgana sat sassily in the center of the chess board, but not before knocking Hecate’s black queen to the floor, as if in a final test of gravity.

“Morgana seems to have decided our chess game is over,” said Pippa between belly laughs, taking out an exceptionally pink handkerchief to dab at the corners of her eyes.

“Morgana, off!” said Hecate, indicating to the cat that she ought to jump to the floor, but Morgana just sat there, flicking her tail and staring at her mistress in defiance, as if to say, “Make me.”

Pippa was laughing so hard she was crying. “I think Morgana is trying to tell you something.”

Hecate huffed as she got down on her knees to clean up the chess pieces. She was too emotional at the moment to perform magic, what with the butterflies in her stomach at hearing Pippa’s laughter, and the frustration at her familiar for ruining an exceptionally well-strategized game of chess.

“Here, let me help you,” said Pippa, joining her on the floor. Without realizing it, both witches went to pick up the same piece—the white queen—and wound up bumping heads.

“Ouch!” said Pippa, rubbing her forehead.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” cried Hecate, reaching out to turn Pippa’s head this way and that, in order to see if she’d done any damage.

“I’m fine, Hecate,” said Pippa fondly. They were so close, there was hardly an inch between them. Pippa’s eyes dropped to Hecate’s lips.

“I don’t think it’ll bruise, but I can always whip up a healing potion—”

“Hecate?” Pippa interrupted, gently removing the witch’s hands from her face.

“Yes?”

Rather than speak, Pippa closed the space between them, pressing her lips against Hecate’s in a gentle kiss. It wasn’t how she imagined their first kiss would be—kneeling on the ground with chess pieces scattered across the floor—but somehow it felt just right.

When the kiss came to a natural conclusion, Pippa let out a contented sigh. “I love you.”

She hadn’t meant to say it—she’d wanted to tell her friend she was sorry for overstepping, for getting carried away, for not asking first if it was something Hecate wanted—but the only words that had come to mind were “I love you.”

Now that they were said, she couldn’t take them back, and she was worried she’d ruined everything. “I-I’m sorry, I-I don’t know what came over me, I just—”

Rather than respond with words, Hecate reached out and pulled Pippa in by the back of the neck. Their second kiss was far more passionate. Pippa hummed in delight, draping her arms over Hecate’s shoulders as one hand tried to undo her bun. It didn’t take much effort; suddenly, Pippa was rewarded with a cascade of dark, curly hair falling down across Hecate’s back.

Hecate was too lost in the kiss to notice one way or the other what her hair was doing. Pippa’s mouth was warm and soft and just right. It felt like coming home after a difficult journey; like stepping off a broom after a long and arduous flight.

When their lips parted again, Hecate whispered, “I love you too. I… I always have.”

“Oh, Hiccup,” Pippa cried, launching her full weight at Hecate, causing them both to go tumbling to the ground. Hecate’s back hit the floor with a resounding _thump_ , but she couldn’t have cared less, as the weight of Pippa on top of her was entirely too diverting.

Pippa felt like a teenager again, overcome with the euphoria of young love. And while they’d both certainly aged in thirty years, this connection between them felt as exciting and new as it did when they were thirteen.

Eventually, they broke apart, breathless. Pippa laughed at Hecate’s mane of hair, which was now decidedly tousled. The witch beneath her looked thoroughly ravaged.

“I can’t believe I waited all these years to do that,” said Pippa, getting off of Hecate so that she could lie on her back on the floor beside her, heedless of the chess pieces poking into her side as she did.

“Me too,” said Hecate, grinning like a fool.

Pippa reached under her to remove a rook that was stabbing into her lower back. “I think I could use that sherry right about now.”

But just as Pippa tried to get up, Morgana pounced on her chest, causing her to going flying back onto the floor. Proud as punch, Morgana licked Pippa’s nose before curling her body around her neck and shoulders.

“I’ve never seen Morgana like this before,” said Hecate, sitting up to try and reign in her cat.

“I don’t know much about cats, I’m afraid,” said Pippa as Morgana’s tail flicked over her nose, causing her to sneeze. Morgana jumped at the sound, relocating to Pippa’s stomach instead. “But I think she likes me.”

“How could she not?” said Hecate, her eyes soft as she reached to pick up her cat, who let out a sassy hiss as Hecate plucked her off of Pippa’s stomach. “So… how about that sherry?”


End file.
